Meaning & Origins

Korean: there is one Chinese character for the Hwang surname. Some sources indicate that there are 163 Hwang clans, but only eleven can be positively documented. The founding ancestor of the Hwang clans was named Hwang Nak. He was a Chinese emissary who had been sent on a mission to Vietnam. Instead of going to Vietnam, however, he went to Korea and settled there in AD 23. Each of Hwang Nak's three sons were founding ancestors of their own clans, and some of their descendants founded additional Hwang clans.